NBA League Pass Watchability Power Rankings

For those of you not aware, the Celtics currently are a long long (but not impossible) shot away from an impossible feat. They are 19-0 at home and could maybe potentially possibly have a chance at the first ever 41-0 home record in NBA history.

There are two teams in the history of the NBA that have come within one game of the Home Great (note to editor: please change the nickname before posting): the 15-16 Spurs and the 85-86 Celtics both went 40-1 at home. The 49-50 Royals, Nationals and Lakers as well as the 46-47 Capitols all only lost one game at home as well but this was well before 82 games and, as with all NBA history, I don’t care unless it happened after the Moon Landing.

20 games into the season, the 85-86 Celtics lost a home game to the Blazers. Prior to that loss, their home record was 9-0 and they proceeded to win their next 31 home games. They would go on to have 67 wins, be the 1 seed in the East and take home the championship in a 4-2 series win over the Hakeem Rockets.

The 15-16 Spurs didn’t lose their first home game until game 80 of the regular season. Fuck guys, so close. They lost to the Warriors in the midst of a three-game losing streak that came about while they tried to rest some guys as they approached the playoffs. The Spurs ended up with 67 wins (twins!) and the 2 Seed in the West because there was some team in their conference that won 73 games. Wait 73? That’s gotta be a typo. The Spurs would go on to lose in the 2nd round of the playoffs in a series with OKC where LaMarcus Aldridge Averaged the second-most points of any player. 

So there we have the two examples, one not close at all and one not even remotely close to going 41-0 at home.

What about the Celtic’s chances?

That 15-16 Spurs team seems to be more the model because they played basketball at a time when the iPhone existed so they probably have more in common with the 23-24 Celtics. This was the year before the whole West just tanked to avoid the Kevin Durant/Steph Curry Warriors so we still had some stout competition. Four teams in the West ended up with at least 50 wins (including the record-setting 73-9 Warriors) and only one team was below 20 wins (the Lakers). Let’s compare that to the East this year. So far the teams in the East on pace for at least 50 wins are the: Celtics, Bucks, and Sixers, and the teams looking to win less than 20 games are the: Pistons, Wizards, and Hornets. So the situation looks better for the 23-24 Celtics than it did for the 15-16 Spurs.

We could look at the differences in net rating (15-16 Spurs: +11.3, 23-24 Celtics: +9.8) or the roster talent arguments (Tatum vs Prime Kawhi? Old Tim Duncan vs Kristaps?) or we could look at the Coach Disparity (Pop wins this one) but Vegas already did the hard work for us on this. They posted odds for the Celtics to go 41-0 in the regular season and it is currently sitting at +6000 The implied odds on that are 1.64%. That feels pretty short to me. For what it’s worth I’m rooting for it. I’m 27 so I probably only have like 7 years max left and in that time I am always rooting for greatness. I want to see the 19-0 NFL team and the 74-8 NBA team and a hockey team that Americans actually notice. So from Talent Alone, good luck Celtics, we’ll be rooting for you.